FINDINGS IV By Harry T. Cook

Proper 11 - C - July 21, 2013 
Luke 10: 38-42

 


Harry T. Cook
By Harry T. Cook
7/15/13


As Jesus and his disciples continued on their way, they came to a village where they were welcomed into the home of two sisters: Martha and Mary. Whilst Martha was in the kitchen preparing a meal for her guest, her sister Mary sat with Jesus, hanging on his every word. Distracted by all she had to do, Martha interrupted Jesus, asking if he was unaware of her labors and that her sister had deserted her, asking Jesus further if he would order Mary into the kitchen.  Jesus patiently chided her, "Martha, Martha: take it easy. Don't worry so much about the details. Focus on the better part your sister has chosen. I will not have it taken from her." (Translated and paraphrased by Harry T. Cook.)


Up for consideration in the reading from Luke referenced above -- the story depicting a drop-in visit by Jesus to the residence of Mary and Martha -- are three primary issues: a) what it meant at the beginnings of Jesus Judaism or nascent Christianity to be a follower, b) the imperative that the passage of finite time lays upon those purposefully on the way toward crisis and c) the importance of the servant role.
 
The story belongs alone to the Lucan document, having no even near-parallel in other gospels as is true for the verses immediately preceding it, viz. the parable of the Good Samaritan. No first century CE writer was better at storytelling than whoever Luke was. There is always color and movement in the stories. They are neither icons nor vignettes, but have almost the character of short film clips. One can hear the exasperation in Martha's voice and the firm patience in Jesus'. One can see Mary attending to her teacher, unaware and maybe even uncaring of the bustle about her. These details make the story memorable.
 
If the church could ever rethink its pedagogy and turn homily-time into a seminar-like discussion, a homilist could "teach" this story much in the same manner as a professor of literature teaches an act or a scene from "Hamlet" or "Antigone."
 
However, church still pretty much means people sitting in auditorium-like rows, faces lifted to a pulpit and its preacher in one-way, take-it-or-leave-it communication.

More mistaken and unhelpful sermons -- and I suppose Sunday school lessons -- have been committed using this passage than - wishing to fend off an onset of depression - we dare attempt to count. Many a homily or lesson it has been my misfortune to hear has used the text to offer women one of two roles: 1) the busy domestic or 2) the silent, adoring type who sits at the feet or her male master.
 
It is anybody's guess as to what Luke was up to in crafting this story beyond reminding the reader that a journey is in progress (the leitmotif of Luke). See v. 38 -- "another village." But the one broad hint that should not go untaken is the clear depiction of Mary as a disciple. (Attention: Vatican! Attention: Anglican and other non-Roman objectors to women's ordination. Part of being a "disciple" -- derived from the Greek
μαθητής that came into English via Latin as "discipulus" means one who learns with or from a teacher.)  
 
Thus part of being a disciple (male or female) is listening to what the teacher has to say, which is what Mary is clearly depicted as doing in the scene Luke created. In the passage previous to this one the lawyer wanted to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life -- and since he pressed the point about who was his neighbor anyway, the answer was: "Don't treat your perceived enemy as an enemy but as a neighbor." That's one way to be a disciple of Jesus. Another is to arrange one's life as Mary arranged hers: to be available to the teacher when he was available to her and not to be distracted by other matters however pressing.
 
The teacher in this case being a male and the student female does not efface what may be the main point of the story, viz. that at least one woman was depicted as being a disciple, one of the gender pool from which some traditionalists insist Jesus did not choose his original inner circle of followers.
 
Luke depicts Jesus saying (v. 41) that Mary had chosen "the better part," though the adjective at that place means "good" and can be taken as either comparative or superlative. Most English translations have it "the better part" because on the face of it there seemed to have been only two choices: serving or listening. There were, of course, other choices, and some would be "good." Would others have been "bad" or simply "not so good?"
 
Luke's Jesus called Mary's disposition to listen to him "the good or better part," meaning at the very least that Martha's choice was the "not so good part." In fact, Luke has Jesus tell Martha that "one thing is necessary." Luke's Jesus was not saying that cooking and serving weren't or couldn't be part of discipleship. It depends on how and for whom one undertakes such tasks and to what end. In any community, a division of labor is vital to its wellbeing. There needs to be somebody in the supply tent preparing the food just as there need to be people listening to the leader. Timing is everything.
 
Another way of understanding the gentle scolding of Martha is to be found later in Luke at 22:27 at which point Luke gives Jesus this line to speak: "I am among you as one who serves." That is the payoff line in his remonstration with the disciples over who is the greatest among them. Perhaps Luke's Jesus is making the same point, telling Martha, in effect, "I'll get something to eat myself. I don't want to be fawned over. Just come over here and listen to what I'm saying." Read that way, the verse suggests urgency about it all, that Jesus might not have much time. Luke knew the end of the story Mark had crafted at an earlier time, and it was true, according to that account, that Jesus did not have much time.
 
We are then to think that, despite the amenities under the hospitality code of first century Palestinian, Jesus did not come to the sisters' home to stay. He had already set his jaw determinedly toward Jerusalem, in which Luke's drama will culminate. Likewise, the purpose of stopping in at Martha and Mary's was not to sample the cuisine. If the depiction of Mary means what it says, the stop had more to do with the making of a disciple. Martha was not incorrect in her actions. She was as correct as Simon the Pharisee (see Luke 7:36-50) had been incorrect. In Luke's plot, it was just that Martha didn't understand what Jesus was doing in her house. Neither, for that matter, did Simon understand what Jesus was about at the dinner party.    

 

Generally the life of many Christian communities, especially those in settled and relatively prosperous locales, tends to the dilatory and ho-hum as if not so much is at stake or at risk, as if Point A. had not been departed from and Point B. were not looming ever closer.
 
Certainly the church has business, and much of it is usual as well as necessary. But that business is to be done in support of the mission. The business is not the mission. The church, like Luke's Martha, has become adept and efficient at its business but utterly neglectful of its mission. The church has no time for a seven-course feast. It needs to grab a Granola bar and get on with it, but not before listening to the voice of its leader and hero who knew the way (a hard one) the truth (a piercing one) and the life (a sacrificial one).

 



Copyright 2013 Harry T. Cook. All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced without proper credit.
 

What a Friend They Had in Jesus: The Theological Visions of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Hymn Writers

Have you ever found yourself humming a favorite childhood hymn, only to realize you could no longer embrace its message? Harry Cook explores how hymns reflect the religious beliefs of their times. He revisits the texts of popular hymns, posing such questions as: How true are they to the biblical texts that seem to have inspired them? What aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century piety have persisted into the twenty-first century through the singing of those hymns? And, how does one manage the conflict between the emotional appeal and the theological content of such hymns?

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